Big Three

Is this the End of the Road for Boston’s Big Three?

The Miami Heat proved that youth, supreme athleticism and the ability to launch lethal offensive strikes reminiscent of a Navy Seal Team Six were the essential ingredients to knock off the former bully of the Eastern Conference, the Boston Celtics. With two minutes remaining in a scintillating Game 5, the Miami Heat scored the last 16 points punctuated by LeBron James closing out the series-clincher, with 10 thunderous points, providing Miami’s Big Three with a 97-87 victory.

Miami’s Big Three of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh are in the prime of their athletic careers. Boston’s Big Three of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen are battling through the vagaries of time and age, and are living testaments that sometimes experience and sheer know-how are no match for an athletically superior opponent.

Celtics fans experiencing a Game 5 hangover of disappointment, resentment and anti-Heat hatred should celebrate the fact that their team played to the last minute – unlike Phil and Kobe’s Los Angeles Lakers. Celtics fans saw that a dislocated elbow and a balky back could not stop Rajon Rondo’s will to win. The city of Boston witnessed big men Jermaine O’Neal (back) and Shaquille O’Neal (calf) attempt to turn back the wear-and-tear of NBA post play, and give the Celtics a few good minutes each game.

The NBA is a 30-team league, where at the end of June, one team will lay claim to the title of world champion. The Celtics’ Big Three and Rondo have relentlessly pursued that goal for four years, and we are now witnessing a team that could be at the end of that quest. With Boston’s Big Three fighting to stave off the Heat and Father Time, will we see this same nucleus come back for the 2011-12 season?

With the NBA facing a potential lockout and potentially dramatic alterations to the collective bargaining agreement, the future is a tad murky, but there are real questions facing Celtics President Danny Ainge.

Should Celtics President Danny Ainge blow up the Big Three and start the rebuilding process immediately?

Paul Pierce has earned the right to end his career in Boston – and with a salary cap figure of $15 million for 2012 – The Truth is going nowhere.

With a price tag of $21 million for the ’12 campaign, no team is looking to pick up Kevin Garnett.

That leaves Ray Allen, who holds a player option for ’12, and look for him to exercise it. Allen would be the logical choice to be used as trade bait, as he will make a paltry $10 million. Based on Ainge’s track record, he will examine all possible deals for Allen that would allow the Celtics to get younger, and more athletic, to compete versus the Miami Heat and Chicago Bulls.

What is the Celtics most vital need?

When Joel Anthony is beating up on you, it’s time to look for some help in the paint.

The Celtics desperately need to find a low post scorer. With Shaq and Jermaine O’Neal battling various injuries for most of the season, the Celtics lacked a reliable scoring threat on the block. Boston’s early season success versus the Heat was a product of the Celtics dominating the paint, being a more cohesive unit, and Dwayne Wade being less than 100% after missing most of the preseason because of a child custody case in Chicago.

Most NBA teams are looking for a big man, who can post up, and provide offense from the paint. Kendrick Perkins doesn’t fit that description, but sometimes one can’t quantify intangibles and chemistry. We will never know if Kendrick Perkins was the big man that the C’s needed to overcome the Heat, but many Celtics fans will have green paint running down their faces believing that Perk was the missing link.

Jermaine O’Neal is signed next year for a little over $6 million. O’Neal proved he can still play, and right now appears to be Boston’s starting center in 2011-12. That can’t inspire much confidence in Celtics fans.

Nenad Krstic isn’t a low post scorer. Watching Doc’s diminishing confidence in his play, which was reflected in Krstic receiving two coach’s DNPs in Games 3 and 4 versus the Heat, he probably isn’t the answer.

Glen “Big Baby” Davis isn’t a low post scorer. Shorter than most of his opponents, Big Baby’s offensive game is either to face up and shoot the jumper or drive to the hole versus a slower defender. Davis is an unrestricted free agent, and don’t look for the C’s to offer him big cash after his disappearing act in the playoffs. Doc clearly lost faith in Big Baby.

Shaq is the definition of unreliable, but for $1.4 million, he is worth bringing back.

And pray that this much-needed big man can rebound. If the C’s can’t find a low post scorer, please find a guy with the surname of Windex.

In the aftermath of the Perk deal, there was a shared consensus among the media and C’s fans, that the Celtics moved Perk because of salary cap implications. The Celtics placed a monetary value on Perkins that was significantly less than what Perk envisioned for his next contract.

Jeff Green for Kendrick Perkins was never about the money. The Celtics will have to pony up the cash to sign the 24-year-old Green, who is a restricted free agent. When the ink dries on Green’s new deal, which will be with the Celtics, Green will probably have signed for more cash than Perk’s four-year $34.8 million contract with Oklahoma City. Ainge must believe that Green is a better value for the money than what was offered by Perk.

Ainge has to sign Jeff Green. The Celtics need to get younger, and more athletic to compete against the Heat, and Green fits the description. Green displayed flashes against the Heat, and his further improvement is essential to Boston’s continued success, as Green is a player who can allow Doc Rivers to reduce Pierce and Allen’s minutes.

Rajon Rondo will never have a consistent jump shot, and it doesn’t matter how many hours he spends in the gym hoisting shot after shot. His technique is so radically flawed – Rondo shoots one-handed – that it’s doubtful whether he is ever going to be able to overhaul this part of his game.

That dovetails nicely with are great jump shooters born or made through hard work. The evidence seems to indicate a whole lot of both, and the perfect example of that would be Jason Kidd, who used to throw rocks at the backboard and has become a legitimate threat from behind the arc.

Rondo is unquestionably the catalyst that drives everything on the Celtics, but his offensive game is generated through his defense. When Rondo is able to increase the pace of the game, which accentuates his athletic skills, his offense is off the hook. Rondo is unstoppable in transition, but he sometimes becomes only an above average player when the game slows down, as his defender will slough off him on the offensive end.

Rondo’s Game 3 rub some dirt on that dislocated elbow performance versus the Heat is now the stuff of playoff legend. When Rondo came out to start the second half, after dislocating his left elbow, it was reminiscent of Larry Bird’s third quarter return to the hardwood, after striking his head on the Boston Garden’s parquet, in a 1991 first-round series-clinching Game 5 versus the Indiana Pacers.

Years down the road, some kid who is now eight-years-old will be writing an entry for his or her 14.0 blog, and our future scribe will discover that Kevin Garnett scored 28 points in Boston’s 97-81 Game 3 win, and then submitted 7 points on 1-for-10 shooting in Boston’s 98-90 Game 4 OT loss.

Eventually this series will be described as the Heat earning a fairly easy 4-1 series win, but that won’t accurately reflect the true nature of this series, nor will we remember KG’s virtuoso Game 3 – because forever in Celtics lore – it will be known as the Rondo game.

Kevin Garnett has never been the same player since suffering his 2009 knee injury. At 35, KG has played nearly 44,000 regular season minutes and we will never see him be the beast he used to be. Garnett’s performances in games 3 and 4 are accurate reflections of what can be expected from the C’s emotional leader in the future. Some nights KG is going to be great, some nights he is going to be okay, and some nights Garnett is going to wish he never came to the arena – but he will always compete.

Can the 2011 NBA Draft help the Celtics?

Two names that immediately pop out are BYU’s Jimmer Fredette and Boston College’s Reggie Jackson. Fredette would provide the C’s with another 3-point shooter, which they desperately need. Jackson would give Doc’s squad much needed athleticism, and someone who could be a nuisance to D Wade on the defensive end. Neither player may drop down to the Celtics, but if either one does, look for Ainge to pull the trigger.

Celtics fans have a long and simmering hatred of the Lakers, which started well before Kobe Bryant burst onto the scene, but the Heat are now Enemy 1A.

Los Angeles and Miami are portrayed as celebrity-filled cities, where one can hang at a chill lounge surrounded by surgically-enhanced women who have breasts that defy the natural laws of gravity. Boston is portrayed, in Hollywood movies such as “The Town” and “Mystic River”, as the working class capital of the Free World. Boston cliché-ridden descriptions bear a sliver of truth, but there are probably sections of Miami and Los Angeles that are a lot tougher than any Boston neighborhood, but let’s not screw with stereotypes.

Boston’s Big Three are viewed as an organic NBA superstar trio, and the Heat’s Big Three are viewed as self-indulgent superstars destroying the natural world of NBA competition.

Danny Ainge made some comments, on Boston sports radio station WEEI, that probably made Paul Pierce’s head do “The Exorcist” spin-o-rama.

On the starting lineup changing:

“Maybe there’s a change of roles. Maybe Paul comes off the bench, cuts down on his minutes. Maybe we find a way to get Jeff more minutes. His role will expand if he’s back here next year. There’s no question about that … ”

“It wouldn’t totally shock me if there’s a change in the starting lineup, but that’s just way too tough to tell.”

Dave, you make a good point that it will be nigh onto impossible to move Garnett and Pierce. But if I were Danny Ainge, I would find a way. He can’t win it all while paying their salaries.

Is there no young team that would take Garnett for the fire he provides? Not one? OK, OK, maybe there isn’t, which just shows what a bonehead move Ainge made in trading Perkins. All KG needs is a big, solid, intelligent defensive center next to him and those great-night-awful-night swings turn into great-night-good-night swings.

Pierce showed his limitations in the Heat series. He had chances to win it and he couldn’t get it done. The fact that he deserves to retire in Boston doesn’t mean that he gets to. I would not be surprised if Danny moved him.

I agree that Ray Allen is the one sure bargaining chip among the big three, and the Celtics can thank Ray for keeping himself in legendary shape.

But Rondo is clearly worth more than the Celtics are paying him. And I would not put it past Danny to peddle him too. I am Rondo’s biggest fan, but he is a bit of a head case, he sometimes hurts the chemistry rather than helps it. He has a terrible habit of walking the ball up when he should be running it. Perhaps it’s all the plantar fasciitis, and maybe he’ll recover over the summer and turn things around. But I think if I were Danny Ainge, I might well be looking to move the whole four of them if there were a way to do it.

In other news, this Jeff Green stuff is all imaginary. Green is too slight to hold back LeBron, and not clever enough to defend Wade. He’d need to transform himself, and it’s always safer to bet against people doing that.

I hope Ainge has a rabbit up his sleeve, but then again, I hoped that he was right about Shaq and J.O. being able to hold the fort, though I KNEW he was wrong. Now it’s common knowledge.

I found your Paul Pierce comments interesting. I have never thought of Pierce as a late-game closer. I’ve seen The Truth miss more late-game shots than make end of game shots, but he is the only current Celtic that can slash to the hole and make something by muscling in a layup or getting to the free throw line. Of course, Rondo can get to the rim, but he is a liability at the line.

Rondo is a head case, which is what makes him so unique and occasionally brillaint. You have to be a tad loco and incredibly hardheaded to return to the floor after suffering a dislocated elbow. You make a great point regarding Rondo’s durability – he plays so hard, and relies so much on his athleticism, when his body breaks down he is in big trouble. Plantar fasciitis clearly impaired his play.

The statistics suggest Jeff Green is far more effective at SF than PF. Green checking LeBron is a total physical mismatch, but to get more offense on the court, Doc would put Green at PF. Ainge has said that Green could be used as a starter next year, with Allen or Pierce coming off the bench.

Ainge does have a rabbit up his sleeve: Friday, he named his son, Austin Ainge, director of player personnel after compiling an 18-32 record as head coach of the D League’s Maine Red Claws.

In David Stern’s NBA, which may change with a new collective bargaining agreement, it is tremendously difficult to blow up a team with aging and expensive veterans.

Actually, my respect for Pierce went up greatly this season, partly because they stopped running that awful play at the end of games where he took the ball 5 feet beyond the top of the key, waited till there were 5 seconds left, and then got stripped on a spin move. He was not really an effective closer, but he thought he was back then.

Pierce is still capable of leading an onslaught when an onslaught is called for, and of playing great defense. The thing that still gets me about Pierce though, is how prone he is to turn over the ball at the wrong time. But in the last two games it seemed like the entire first team was doing that, so I guess it isn’t his fault. KG could have won that game. Ray Allen could have won that game. Rondo could have won that game with his layup. They didn’t get it done. So, unfair though it may be, I curse Danny Ainge.